Three-dimensional Mental Rotation Research Articles

Effects of transcranial direct current stimulation on event-related potentials of mental rotation

There are few researches on the modulation effect of transcranial direct current stimulation(tDCS) on complex spatial cognition. Especially, the influence of tDCS on the neural electrophysiological response in spatial cognition is not yet clear. This study selected the classic spatial cognition task paradigm (three-dimensional mental rotation task) as the research object. By comparing the changes in behavior and event-related potentials in different modes of tDCS before, during and after the application of tDCS, this study analyzed the behavioral and neurophysiological effects of tDCS on mental rotation. The comparison between active-tDCS and sham-tDCS showed no statistically significant difference in behavior between different stimulation modes. Still, the changes in the amplitudes of P2 and P3 during the stimulation were statistically significant. Compared with sham-tDCS, the amplitudes of P2 and P3 in active-tDCS mode showed a greater decrease during the stimulation. This study clarifies the influence of tDCS on the event-related potentials of the mental rotation task. It shows that tDCS may improve the brain information processing efficiency during the mental rotation task. Also, this study provides a reference for an in-depth understanding and exploration of the modulation effect of tDCS on complex spatial cognition.

Spatial ability and science achievement more closely associated in eighth-graders than in fourth-graders: a large-scale study

ABSTRACT An abundance of empirical evidence indicates that spatial ability is significantly correlated with educational performance in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. Previous studies have explored the relationship between spatial ability and science achievement in adults. However, the relationship between spatial ability and science achievement in children at different stages of learning remains unclear. This study examined how the relationship between spatial ability and science achievement differed by grade. A total of 29, 524 students, including 17, 378 fourth graders (boys = 9022, girls = 8365, mean age = 9.78) and 12, 137 eighth graders (boys =6294, girls = 5843, mean age =13.73), were selected from the Qingdao Basic Education Quality Assessment database using cluster random sampling. Participants were recruited to complete two basic cognitive processing tasks (three-dimensional mental rotation and nonverbal matrix reasoning), two self-report scales (multiple intelligence and learning persistence), and a curriculum-based science achievement assessment. The study demonstrated that spatial ability and science achievement are closely related in Chinese children. That this relationship was evident in every instance tested shows a certain stability. The relationship was stronger in eighth-grade students than in fourth-grade students, even after controlling for reasoning ability (measured via non-verbal matrix reasoning) and learning persistence. The relationship between spatial ability and science achievement over time depends on how spatial ability is assessed, either through self-reports or cognitive-based tests. This indicates that in children, as they advance in grade and science courses become more difficult, spatial abilities play an increasingly important role in science learning.

Video Game Play Does Not Improve Spatial Skills When Controlling for Speed-Accuracy Trade-Off: Evidence From Mental-Rotation and Mental-Folding Tasks.

Researchers have been divided on the efficacy of computerized cognitive training (CCT) for enhancing spatial abilities, transfer of training, and improving malleability of skills. In this study, we assessed the effects of puzzle video game training on subsequent mental rotation (MR) and mental folding (MF) performance among adults with no cognitive impairment. We assessed participants at baseline with the Shepard-Metzler MR test followed by the differential aptitude test: space relations MF test (i.e., far transfer). We ranked participants' skills on these pre-tests and used a matching technique to form two skill groups from which we then randomly assigned members of each skill group either to an experimental group or a wait-list control group. The experimental group played two puzzle video games closely related to two-dimensional and three-dimensional MR tasks during 4-week training sessions (total of 12hour of video games). Post-training, participants completed the MR and MF tests again. Two months later, we re-assessed only the experimental group's spatial skills to explore the sustainability of the trained performance. In addition to response times (RT) and error scores (ES), reported separately, we combined these variables into rate correct scores (RCS) to form an integrated measure of potential speed-accuracy trade-offs (SAT). As a result, we did not find significant improvements in MR performance from CCT engagement, nor did participants show a transfer of skills obtained by practicing MR-related puzzle games to a MF task. Based on the current findings, we urge caution when proposing a game-based intervention as a training tool to enhance spatial abilities. We argue that separately interpreting individual test measures can be misleading, as they only partially represent performance. In contrast, composite scores illuminate underlying cognitive strategies and best determine whether an observed improvement is attributable to enhanced capacities or individual heuristics and learned cognitive shortcuts.

The Link Between Masculinity and Spatial Skills Is Moderated by the Estrogenic and Progestational Activity of Oral Contraceptives.

Conversations about gender and spatial skills frequently dissolve into a hackneyed debate over nature and nurture. This is particularly true for conversations concerning three-dimensional (3D) mental rotations skill, which shows the largest gender difference of all aspects of cognition, with men—on average—outperforming women. To advance this empirical area of inquiry, biopsychosocial influences on spatial skills should be considered, and a unique opportunity do to that is provided by combined oral contraceptives (OCs). OCs with relatively low estradiol doses and with highly androgenic progestins have been positively related to spatial skills. Gender self-concepts, including masculine and feminine self-perceptions, have also been positively related to spatial skills. It is wholly unknown, however, whether the exogenous sex hormones contained in OCs moderate the link between self-perceived masculinity and 3D mental rotations. This study filled that knowledge gap by utilizing a sample of 141 naturally cycling (NC) women and 229 OC users who completed a computerized survey and cognitive tests. A series of moderation analyses examined whether the link between masculinity and 3D mental rotations depended on pill use or on the estrogenic, progestational, or androgenic activity in OCs, which were operationalized using a novel coding scheme. Results showed that the positive masculinity-3D mental rotations link was only present for NC women, presumably because it was altered by the exogenous hormones in OCs. Indeed, the link was accentuated in users of OCs with relatively low estrogenic and high progestational activity. Future research on menstrual cycle and pill phase is needed, but these findings importantly delineate ways in which biological and psychosocial factors combine to explain variation in spatial skills among women. They also suggest that focus should be placed on the under-investigated progestational activity of OCs, which is facilitated by the novel quantification of OC action used in this study. Thus, this research increases understanding of the neurocognitive and behavioral correlates of ovarian hormones and has implications for the betterment of women’s health.

Research on enhancement of mental rotation ability based on transcranial direct current stimulation

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive low-current brain stimulation technique, which is mainly based on the different polarity of electrode stimulation to make the activation threshold of neurons different, thereby regulating the excitability of the cerebral cortex. In this paper, healthy subjects were randomly divided into three groups: anodal stimulation group, cathodal stimulation group and sham stimulation group, with 5 subjects in each group. Then, the performance data of the three groups of subjects were recorded before and after stimulation to test their mental rotation ability, and resting state and task state electroencephalogram (EEG) data were collected. Finally, through comparative analysis of the behavioral data and EEG data of the three groups of subjects, the effect of electrical stimulation of different polarities on the three-dimensional mental rotation ability was explored. The results of the study found that the correct response time/accuracy rate and the accuracy rate performance of the anodal stimulation group were higher than those of the cathodal stimulation and sham stimulation groups, and there was a significant difference ( P < 0.05). The alpha wave power analysis found that the mental rotation mainly activates the frontal lobe, central area, parietal lobe and occipital lobe. In the anodal stimulation group, the alpha wave power changed significantly in the frontal lobe and occipital lobe ( P < 0.05). The results of this paper show that anodal stimulation group can improve the mental rotation ability of the subjects to a certain extent. The results of this paper can provide important theoretical support for further research on the mechanism of tDCS on mental rotation ability.

Superior pitch identification ability is associated with better mental rotation performance

Musicians with absolute pitch ability show better spatial ability, but little is known about whether non-musicians’ pitch identification (PI) ability is associated with their spatial ability. In the present study, a PI test, two mental rotation (MR) tests (Three-Dimensional Mental Rotation [3DMR] and Spatial Relationship [SR]), and eight executive function (EF) tests were administered to a large sample ( N = 525) of Chinese college students who were non-music majors. A subsample with superior PI ability ( n = 42) was identified and compared with a sample with average PI ability matched in age and IQ ( n = 42). Two-way analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) (PI ability x musical training, with gender as a covariate due to a minor difference in matching by gender) revealed that superior PI ability was associated with better performance on MR and various EF tests. Musical training was associated with performance on select visual and EF tests (i.e., visual perception, working memory, and executive attention control), but not with MR performance. Additional ANCOVA showed that PI ability was significantly associated with 3DMR, but not SR, even after scores on EF tests were included as covariates. These results indicate a unique association between PI ability and 3DMR, which helps shed light on the cognitive mechanisms related to PI ability.

Anodal transcranial direct current stimulation over the posterior parietal cortex enhances three-dimensional mental rotation ability

Prior neuroimaging and neurophysiological studies have found that the right posterior parietal cortex (PPC) plays an important role in mental rotation ability. Transcranial direct-current stimulation (tDCS) has been shown the potential to enhance cognitive ability by delivering a low current to the brain cortex of interest, via electrodes on the scalp. Here, we tested whether stimulating the PPC with tDCS can improve three-dimensional mental rotation performance and narrow gender difference. The classic three-dimensional Shepard–Metzler task was measured after three stimulation conditions (right PPC, left PPC, sham stimulation). The results indicated that stimulating the right PPC induced an improvement in accuracy and response time of mental rotation relative to sham stimulation. Stimulating the left PPC caused an enhancement in the accuracy but not in the response time. Gender difference during mental rotation was diminished after stimulation. These findings indicated that the PPC regions played a causal role in mental rotation ability. tDCS could be used as a promising non-invasive method to improve mental rotation skills in individuals with lower ability and to provide an effective therapeutic tool for neurological disorder rehabilitation.

Capturing Fluctuations in Gendered Cognition With Novel Intensive Longitudinal Measures

Cognition is often assumed to be stable, but compelling evidence shows that some skills (e.g., working memory) vary. There is limited investigation, however, of variation in gendered cognition, such as spatial skills and verbal recall, potentially because there are no validated measures for intensive longitudinal assessment. The goal of this study was to introduce and validate new 75-occasion measures of three-dimensional mental rotations and delayed paired verbal recall. This was accomplished by studying cognitive fluctuations over 75 days in an intensive longitudinal study of 121 participants, focusing on 54 (27 women) who were matched for gender, age, and language. Results from psychometric analyses suggest that both measures show parallel forms reliability, including expected gender differences, and validity (i.e., performance with respect to a standard measure or item difficulty), although results are more consistent for mental rotations than verbal recall. Results also suggest there are significant daily fluctuations in both mental rotations and verbal recall. Findings encourage future clinical work on the antecedents and consequences of cognitive fluctuations with the newly developed, freely available measures.

The role of frontal and parietal cortex in the performance of gifted and average adolescents in a mental rotation task.

Visual-spatial abilities are usually neglected in academic settings, even though several studies have shown that their predictive power in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics domains exceeds that of math and verbal ability. This neglect means that many spatially talented youths are not identified and nurtured, at a great cost to society. In the present work, we aim to identify behavioral and electrophysiological markers associated with visual spatial-ability in intellectually gifted adolescents (N = 15) compared to age-matched controls (N = 15). The participants performed a classic three-dimensional mental rotation task developed by Shepard and Metzler (1971) [33] while event-related potentials were measured in both frontal and parietal regions of interest. While response time was similar in the two groups, gifted subjects performed the test with greater accuracy. There was no indication of interhemispheric asymmetry of ERPs over parietal regions in both groups, although interhemispheric differences were observed in the frontal lobes. Moreover, intelligence quotient and working memory measures predicted variance in ERP’s amplitude in the right parietal and frontal hemispheres. We conclude that while gifted adolescents do not display a different pattern of electroencephalographic activity over the parietal cortex while performing the mental rotation task, their performance is correlated with the amplitude of ERPs in the frontal cortex during the execution of this task.

The Development of a Multidimensional Diagnostic Assessment With Learning Tools to Improve 3-D Mental Rotation Skills.

This study reported on development and evaluation of a learning program that integrated a multidimensional diagnostic assessment with two different learning interventions with the aim to diagnose and improve three-dimensional mental rotation skills. The multidimensional assessment was built upon the Diagnostic Classification Model (DCM) framework that can report the binary mastery on each specific rotation skill. The two learning interventions were designed to train students to use a holistic rotation strategy and a combined analytic and holistic strategy, respectively. The program was evaluated through an experiment paired with multiple exploratory and confirmatory statistical analysis. Particularly, the recently proposed joint models for response times and response accuracy within dynamic DCM framework is applied to assess the effectiveness of the learning interventions. Compared with the traditional assessment on spatial skills, where the tests are timed and number correct is reported as a measure for test-takers' performances, the developed dynamic diagnostic assessment can provide an informative estimate of the learning trajectory for each participant in terms of the strengths and weaknesses in four fine-grained spatial rotation skills over time. Compared with an earlier study that provided initial evidence of the effectiveness of building a multidimensional diagnostic assessment with training tools, the present study improved the assessment and learning intervention design. Using both response times and response accuracy, thus current study additionally evaluated the newly developed program by investigating the effectiveness of two interventions across gender, country and rotation strategy.

The gender effect in 3D-Mental-rotation performance with familiar and gender-stereotyped objects – a study with elementary school children

ABSTRACTThe study examined the influence of gender-stereotyped stimuli rotated in depth on children’s mental-rotation performance. Participants included 321 elementary school children who completed three-dimensional mental-rotation tasks with either male- or female-stereotyped stimuli (M-MRT-3D/F-MRT-3D). Results suggest that in-depth tasks are very difficult for second graders. No gender effect was found in the mental-rotation performance of 7- to 9-year-old children; however, task understanding indicates gender differences. For fourth graders, a significant interaction of gender and stimulus type could be demonstrated. Furthermore, results indicate that fourth-grade boys tend to guess more often in tasks with stimuli consistent to the respective own gender. In addition, regression analyses showed that next to grade and perceptual speed, the perceived level of stimulus familiarity predicted performance. Considering a possible link between dimensionality and familiarity, the influence of the gender-stereotyped stimuli on children’s confidence and task understanding as well as on transformational processes and strategy efficiency is discussed.

Sex Differences in Gray Matter Volume of the Right Anterior Hippocampus Explain Sex Differences in Three-Dimensional Mental Rotation.

Behavioral studies have reported that males perform better than females in 3-dimensional (3D) mental rotation. Given the important role of the hippocampus in spatial processing, the present study investigated whether structural differences in the hippocampus could explain the sex difference in 3D mental rotation. Results showed that after controlling for brain size, males had a larger anterior hippocampus, whereas females had a larger posterior hippocampus. Gray matter volume (GMV) of the right anterior hippocampus was significantly correlated with 3D mental rotation score. After controlling GMV of the right anterior hippocampus, sex difference in 3D mental rotation was no longer significant. These results suggest that the structural difference between males’ and females’ right anterior hippocampus was a neurobiological substrate for the sex difference in 3D mental rotation.

Are Gender Differences in Spatial Ability Real or an Artifact? Evaluation of Measurement Invariance on the Revised PSVT:R

We investigated the extent to which the observed gender differences in mental rotation ability among the 2,468 freshmen studying engineering at a Midwest public university attributed to the gender bias of a test. The Revised Purdue Spatial Visualization Tests: Visualization of Rotations (Revised PSVT:R) is a spatial test frequently used to measure students’ spatial visualization ability in three-dimensional mental rotation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields. With two major approaches for evaluating measurement invariance, we found that five items in the Revised PSVT:R showed a difference in the response pattern by gender, but the impact of these biased items was marginal on the total scores on the scale. Our findings support the equitable use of the Revised PSVT:R by gender for educational research and practices.

Cognitive profile of children with newly onset benign epilepsy with centro-temporal spikes before treatment:a study of computerized cognitive testing in epilepsy

Benign epilepsy with centro-temporal spikes (BECTs) is a common idiopathic partial epileptic syndrome in childhood, which often affect the pre-school and school-age children and a considerable proportion have comorbidity including lower academic achievement and cognitive impairment. Few studies involved the psychocognitive assessment in such a drug-treatable epileptic syndrome especially in the newly diagnosed and medications-naive group. This study aimed to investigate the cognitive characteristics of children with newly onset BECTs before treatment. Forty-one outpatients with newly diagnosed BECTs who visited the Clinic during the periods from October 2012 to May 2014 before the medications against epilepsy and 41 healthy controls recruited from regular school in Beijing during the period from July 2013 to March 2014, who matched in age and gender underwent battery testing by computerized cognitive testing in epilepsy (CCTE). The BECTs group included 41 children, 20 boys and 21 girls, mean age (8.2 ± 1.7) years, the age of onset of epilepsy 4.5-11.5 years (the age of onset <8 years in 25 cases, ≥ 8 years in 16 cases). The cognitive characteristics and associated factors were analyzed. The primary data including correct answer numbers and reaction times were analyzed by independent sample t-test between the two groups of children with BECTs and healthy controls based on SPSS 18.0 statistical software. Raw data of 9 tasks' scores collected from BECTs and healthy control children were continuous variables in accordance with normal distribution. BECTs children performed significantly worse than controls in choice reaction time ((618+158) vs. (524+254) ms), three-dimensional mental rotation (11 ± 10 vs. 18 ± 12) and visual tracing (10 ± 6 vs.15 ± 6), t=2.01, 3.03 and 3.47, P<0.05, <0.01 and <0.001, respectively.While other 6 tasks showed no significant difference between the two groups (P>0.05 for all comparisons). BECTs boys performed significantly worse than girls on simple substraction tasks compared with standard nine score ((4.7 ± 1.5) vs. (5.6 ± 1.2), t=-2.24, P<0.05). Other 8 tasks showed no significant difference between boys and girls (P>0.05 for all comparisons). Other 9 tasks showed no significant differences between the two groups of BECTs children whose age of onset was before 8 years and those who started seizure ≥ 8 years (P all >0.05). The standard nine scores of simple substraction from the three BECTs groups of dominance sides of spikes and waves during NREM showed significant difference (P<0.05). BECTs children with bilateral discharges performed significantly worse than the other two groups dominantly right or left discharges (4.7 ± 1.2 vs. 6.0 ± 1.2 vs. 4.9 ± 1.4, P all <0.05). There was no significant difference between the two groups with right and left side dominance discharges (P>0.05). Other 8 tasks showed no significant differences among the three groups (P>0.05 for all comparisons). Although EEG discharges index below 50% during NREM period, while newly diagnosed BECTs children before treatment with medications against epilepsy performed poorer on tasks of choice reaction time, three-dimensional mental rotation, and visual tracing. The two factors of male and bilateral discharges during NREM period correlate with dysfunction of simple subtraction, the mechanism needs further study and the cognitive function of epilepsy children should be evaluated and followed up, in order to provide psychologic baseline data for persistent cognitive disturbance.

P.1.i.007 Modulatory effects of cross-sex steroid hormones in the adult human brain: a voxel-based morphometry study

There is strong evidence of sex differences in mental rotation tasks. Transsexualism is an extreme gender identity disorder in which individuals seek cross-gender treatment to change their sex. The aim of our study was to investigate if male-to-female (MF) and female-to-male (FM) transsexuals receiving cross-sex hormonal treatment have different patterns of cortical activation during a three-dimensional (3D) mental rotation task. An fMRI study was performed using a 3-T scan in a sample of 18 MF and 19 FM under chronic cross-sex hormonal treatment. Twenty-three males and 19 females served as controls. The general pattern of cerebral activation seen while visualizing the rotated and non-rotated figures was similar for all four groups showing strong occipito-parieto-frontal brain activation. However, compared to control males, the activation of MF transsexuals during the task was lower in the superior parietal lobe. Compared to control females, MF transsexuals showed higher activation in orbital and right dorsolateral prefrontal regions and lower activation in the left prefrontal gyrus. FM transsexuals did not differ from either the MF transsexual or control groups. Regression analyses between cerebral activation and the number of months of hormonal treatment showed a significant negative correlation in parietal, occipital and temporal regions in the MF transsexuals. No significant correlations with time were seen in the FM transsexuals. In conclusion, although we did not find a specific pattern of cerebral activation in the FM transsexuals, we have identified a specific pattern of cerebral activation during a mental 3D rotation task in MF transsexuals under cross-sex hormonal treatment that differed from control males in the parietal region and from control females in the orbital prefrontal region. The hypoactivation in MF transsexuals in the parietal region could be due to the hormonal treatment or could reflect a priori cerebral differences between MF transsexual and control subjects.

Visual-spatial cognition in women with polycystic ovarian syndrome: the role of androgens

Are women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) better at three-dimensional mental rotation than other women? Women with PCOS scored significantly higher on a mental rotation task than a female control group. PCOS is a condition characterized by elevated testosterone levels. Some researches have found that three-dimensional mental rotation task performance is positively correlated with testosterone levels. This cross-sectional study was conducted between June 2006 and January 2009. The participants were 69 women with PCOS and 41 controls recruited from five gynaecology clinics in London. The control group consisted of non-PCOS women of comparable subfertility to PCOS group. These groups sizes gave roughly 80% power to detect moderate effect sizes for the main statistical test. Participants were recruited at London gynaecology clinics. The women were aged between 18 and 43. PCOS was diagnosed based on the Rotterdam criteria. Controls were women who experienced some degree of subfertility. Blood samples from participants were frozen for up to 4 months until being assayed by direct electrochemiluminescence. The mental rotation task was undertaken electronically. Some questionnaires and other tasks were completed as control measures. Women with PCOS scored significantly higher than controls: median (range) 3.00 (0-9) and 2.00 (0-8), respectively (U = 1147.500, N1 = 69, N2 = 41, P < 0.047). Within the PCOS group, circulating levels of testosterone were significantly positively correlated with three-dimensional scoring (rs = 0.376, n = 56, P < 0.002), whereas estradiol was significantly negatively correlated with three-dimensional scoring (rs = -0.473, n = 29, P < 0.010). In the control group, the relationship between sex hormones and mental rotation was non-significant. Other factors, including general intelligence and social class, did not account for these findings. A subgroup analysis comparing hyperandrogenic PCOS cases, non-hyperandrogenic PCOS cases and controls, in which age and body mass index were controlled for using ANCOVA, found a non-significant difference in three-dimensional scoring between the three groups (F = 1.062, d.f. = 1, 73, P < 0.351). The small number of women in the control group meant that correlations were underpowered in this group. This study is the first to find a benefit of PCOS in visuospatial cognition, and the first to find a link between visuospatial cognition and sex hormones in PCOS. The fact that the correlations went in the opposite direction in the PCOS group compared with the controls might suggest the influence of increased prenatal exposure to androgen in PCOS. The assays for this study were funded by the Department of Psychology, City University London. All authors report no conflicts of interest.

Differentiating two- from three-dimensional mental rotation training effects

Block videogame training has consistently demonstrated transfer effects to mental rotation tasks, yet how variations in training influence performance with different stimuli remains unclear. In this study, participants took mental rotation assessments before and after a 3-week training programme based on 2D or 3D block videogames. Assessments varied in terms of dimensionality (2D or 3D) and stimulus type (polygon or body). Increases in videogame scores throughout training were correlated with mental rotation improvements. In particular, 2D training led to improvements in 2D tasks, whereas 3D training led to improvements in both 2D and 3D tasks. This effect did not depend on stimulus type, demonstrating that training can transfer to different stimuli of identical dimensionality. Interestingly, traditional gender differences in 3D mental rotation tasks vanished after 3D videogame training, highlighting the malleability of mental rotation ability given adequate training. These findings emphasize the influence of dimensionality in transfer effects and offer promising perspectives to reduce differences in mental rotation via designed training programmes.

Cognitive effects of variations in pubertal timing: Is puberty a period of brain organization for human sex-typed cognition?

There is considerable interest in the organizational effects of pubertal sex hormones on human sex-related characteristics. Recent evidence from rodents suggests that there is a decreasing window of sensitivity to sex hormones throughout adolescence. If adolescence also represents a period of brain organization in human beings, then the timing of exposure to sex-typical hormones at puberty should have long-term effects on sex-typed characteristics: individuals with early timing should be more sex-typed than individuals with late timing. We tested this hypothesis in 320 young adults by relating their pubertal timing (retrospective comparison to peers) to cognitive abilities that show sex differences. Results provide partial support for the hypothesis. For men, pubertal timing was inversely related to scores on a test of three-dimensional mental rotations. Effects do not appear to be due to duration of hormone exposure (time since puberty), but other potential influences need further study.

A Meta-Analysis on Gender Differences in Mental Rotation Ability Measured by the Purdue Spatial Visualization Tests: Visualization of Rotations (PSVT:R)

This meta-analysis was conducted to estimate the magnitude of gender difference in three-dimensional (3-D) mental rotation ability and to investigate how factors related to test administration conditions play a role in varying gender difference effect sizes and threatening validity. Individuals’ 3-D mental rotation ability was measured by the Purdue Spatial Visualization Tests: Visualization of Rotations (PSVT:R). We integrated 70 effect sizes of gender differences in mental rotation ability measured by the PSVT:R which were obtained from 40 primary studies. The results indicated that male participants outperformed females on the test (Hedges’ g = 0.57). The I 2 statistic indicated 41.7 % of variation in effect sizes reflects real heterogeneity. The moderator analysis indicated that male superiority on spatial ability tasks measured by the PSVT:R is related to the implementation of time limits. The gender difference became larger when stringent time limits (equal or less than 30 s per item) were implemented.

Inferring cross sections of 3D objects: A new spatial thinking test

A new spatial ability test was administered online to 223 undergraduate students enrolled in introductory science courses. The 30-item multiple choice test measures individual differences in ability to identify the two-dimensional cross section of a three-dimensional geometric solid, a skill that has been identified as important in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. Bivariate and partial correlations suggest that the test measures a skill that is distinct from three-dimensional mental rotation and change in view perspective. Test items varied along two scales: complexity of the geometric solid to be sliced and orientation of the cutting plane. Internal reliability of both the overall test and its subscales was satisfactory. Performance was higher on figures cut by orthogonal, rather than oblique, planes. Patterns of performance across more and less complex items, and patterns of sex differences on these items, suggest that items on the test are differentially amenable to imagistic and analytic strategies, with males outperforming females on items that are less amenable to analytic strategies. The test shows promise for online administration and for adaptation to younger populations.